Two weeks in the West

"I'm sucking up to you.
But you know, when you’re at 13 percent, you’ve got to
do something."

—New
Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, seeking support for his Democratic
presidential campaign at an Aug. 22 forum at the University of
Nevada-Reno, where he vowed that if he wins, he’ll fund all
kinds of education programs.

All over
the country, people are finding it harder to afford a doctor when
they get sick. Forty-seven million Americans - or 15.8
percent - lacked health insurance in 2006, 2.2 million more than
the year before. According to recent U.S. Census Bureau figures,
Westerners are even worse off, with a 17.9 percent rate of
uninsured. Texas leads the country in the rate of uninsured, but
New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada are all close behind,
with uninsured rates ranging from 21 to 18.3 percent. Native
Americans are in especially bad shape, with 31 percent uninsured.

Various factors have been blamed for the increase. The
Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, points to the
decrease in employer-provided health insurance. Seven years ago, 64
percent of workers got health coverage from their jobs; fewer than
60 percent receive it now. Others blame immigration: A whopping 45
percent of foreign-born non-citizens lack health insurance, which
can drag down numbers in immigrant-heavy states such as California
or Arizona.

On a more positive health-related note, the
West remains relatively lean. According to a recent report from the
Trust for America's Health, Colorado is the least obese state in
the nation, with only 17.6 percent of its residents qualifying as
obese. The rest of the Western states also fared better than the
nation as a whole. Mississippi, meanwhile, is the fattest state of
all - 30.6 percent of its residents are obese.

Fire was in the news across the West, with political
careers, giant puppets and forests all going up in
flames. Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig
claimed he wasn't gay even though he pleaded guilty to disorderly
conduct for soliciting sex from an undercover cop in an airport
bathroom. But his claims didn't go far with colleagues within his
own party, many of whom denounced his behavior. On Sept. 2, Craig
said he would resign at the end of the month, effectively ending an
influential political career that spanned nearly four decades.
Then, he shifted his stance, saying he would rescind his plea,
fight the charges against him and possibly not resign. Craig has
opposed gun control, supported resource extraction on public lands
and was no friend to salmon or, for that matter, gays. Idaho Gov.
Butch Otter, R, will appoint Craig's replacement.

Burning
Man - the multi-day bacchanalian extravaganza of grooviness, dust,
sex and staring at the sun for hours on end in the Nevada desert -
suffered a case of premature conflagration in August. Someone
furtively torched the big guy four days early, an event normally
saved for the climax of the festival. The man who has been charged
with the crime, Paul Addis, told Wired magazine that Burning Man
had become an "Alterna-Disney."

Sun Valley ski resort in
Idaho told prospective visitors to stay away because of wildfire
raging in the area, and turned on snowmaking machines to keep the
flames at bay. The fire forced the evacuation of 1,000 homes.
Wealthy homeowners received extra protection: A high-end insurance
company sent private contractors in to douse their mansions with
fire-retardant. In Colorado, Eagle County and the town of Vail -
home to many affluent folks - forked out $400,000 to help the
Forest Service cut a 200-acre firebreak in a beetle-infested forest
near town.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D, called on
his state's Legislature to set aside $55 million to fight wildfires
that have already charred more than 400,000 acres of Montana this
summer. And scientists in Idaho are hoping to battle cheatgrass,
one of the West's most notorious fire-feeding noxious weeds, with
the Black Fingers of Death, a fungus that attacks the grass' seeds.

Maybe they just need more nightclubs.
Wyoming's economy may be booming, and high-paying energy jobs
plentiful, but that apparently hasn't made the state any more
desirable for young people. A recent study by the Wyoming
Department of Employment showed that workers between the ages of 16
and 34 are leaving the state at about the same rate as a decade
ago, before the boom began.

Housing prices
nationwide continue to drop at levels not seen since the
Depression, and economists expect the decline to
continue. Arizona home prices are down for the first time in 16
years, and Nevada leads the nation in investor-owned foreclosures.
Wyoming seems to have dodged the bullet so far, and its economy
continues to boom. That hasn't helped the U.S. Forest Service,
which may move the Bridger-Teton National Forest supervisor's
office out of Jackson, Wyo., because of high housing
costs.